Twice Smoked Ham With Citrus Glaze

Looking for a new twist on a classic recipe for your next holiday meal? You need to try out this twice smoked ham recipe. The preparation for this meal is very easy, and the flavor you get combining the citrus glaze and the smoky rich flavor of the ham is sure to be a hit.

Lets start off by talking about the types of ham you will need for this recipe. There are a couple varieties of ham you can find. Country ham is dry cured over a long period of time and it has a rich very salty flavor to it. City ham is what you will normally see in the grocery store. This type of ham has been cured in a solution contianing salt, water, and various other ingredients meant to help preserve it and give it some flavor. This type of hame is usually smoked before being packaged. This is the type of hame we are looking to use for this recipe and the reason it is titled twice smoked hame. Smoked once before packaging and then again by you before eating. Do not worry about the smoky flavor it does not end up being an overpowering flavor. In the store you will generally find shank end hams and butt end hams to choose from. The shank end is the end that looks like the classic ham you would see in a picture for a holiday meal. The meat is a little leaner and this ham only has 1 bone in it so it is a little easier to carve. The butt end meat is a little fattier which gives it a richer flavor. I find that I prefer the shank but feel free to decide for yourself which cut you would rather have. Whichever you pick it wont affect the directions for this recipe. The only advice I would give would be to avoid the boneless hams. This is becuase the meat has been processed and you will lose some of the flavor that you get from one of the bone in types.

Cooking Basics

The prep work for this is very easy. You will need to take your ham out of the packaging and pat dry it with a paper towel. Once this step is done you may choose to apply a rub if you would like. I don’t use a rub in this recipe because the glaze has plenty of flavor by itself. Once your ham is ready we will put it in an aluminum pan to cook. You can cook directly on the smoker to start but I just find this easier to move the ham around with and avoids a huge mess when you apply glaze.

Now its time to fire up the pit. You will want to set your smoker / grill up for indirect heat and the temperature you want is 225. The type of wood I prefer to use to smoke ham is hickory but any of the fruit woods are a good choice as well. Once the smoker / grill is up to temp put the ham on and put a tmeperature probe in if you have it. You will want to leave the ham until the internal temperature comes up to 130 degrees before applying the glaze.

While the ham is coming up to temperature you will want to mix all the ingredients for the glaze listed below into a pot and bring them to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling you will want to lower the heat and allow the glaze to simmer for 6 to 8 minutes. When the ham reachs 130 you will want to apply a layer of glaze to the ham and then leave it in the smoker until the internal tmeperature reaches 140. We apply the glaze later in the cook because there is a good amount of sugar and you dont want it to burn while the ham is cooking.

When the ham reaches 140 degrees you will want to remove it from the smoker and apply another layer of glaze. Once this is done its ready to serve.

Alternatives

There is no one way that is hands down the best way to cook anything. It is all about trying different things to see what you prefer. Because of that I am going to list some alternatives for this recipe that you might try to see if you prefer one variation over another.

• Ham type - In this recipe I talked about using a shank or butt end ham. I have seen a lot of people use spiral cut hams for this type of thing as well. Next time I try this I am going to try that because I think it will allow more smoke to penetrate the meat and also allow the glaze to get into the ham more.
• Seasoning - In this recipe I do not use a rub but I have seen many variations of this type of recipe that do reccomend using one.
• Glaze - There are a ton of various recipes you can find online for types of glazes. I have seen cherry, brown sugar dijon, bourbon brown sugar, and many others. You can use this exact recipe and switch glazes to get very different flavors from this. I think I am going to try the brown sugar dijon type next itme I make this. If you try any that you love or that are unique please leave me a comment and let me know.

Recipe